Being bad at math
-
Saying the first element in an array is an unambiguous statement. "On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." --Charles Babbage
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
"First" could mean many things in different contexts. As I recall, in Pascal, you can define an array in which the first index is -5 (for example). Which is why I say zeroth and oneth (or negative-fiveth) instead.
-
Mathematically the first row should have a style all of its own as Zero can't really be classed as either odd or even. It would make sense to style it as even though so that it had the contrasting style to row 1. Of course if you're going to allow the user a choice of what to do then you may end up asking the user what colour you want for the first third and fifth row etc and then set that to the even row style behind the scenes.
-
Russell Jones wrote:
as Zero can't really be classed as either odd or even
How not? I assume the "official" definition is the modulus 2, or somethign equivalent to it.
Don't attribute to stupidity what can be equally well explained by buerocracy.
My latest article | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
Zero based indexes seem to be kicking programmer's A**es even today. I am recently using a software package that allows row styles to be applied for even and odd rows. If you apply an even style the 1st, 3rd, 5th, ... row receives the style instead of the correct row 2, 4, 6 etc. It would seem to me that the programmer that designed the underlying code used the index of a zero based index to determine if the row was even or odd. So let me pose this question: Do you think the first row should be considered even or odd?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
Despite being indexed with zero, there really is not a 'zeroth' row. The FIRST row has an index of zero. So, the question is, should the term 'Even Rows' apply to the row or its index? Debate all you want - but I would wager that the majority of implementations, and the majority of technical and non technical people, when presented with a list, would count the first row as one and, therefore, odd. So the implementation you are using is, I'd say, non standard and confusing. Which one is it?
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
-
Zero based indexes seem to be kicking programmer's A**es even today. I am recently using a software package that allows row styles to be applied for even and odd rows. If you apply an even style the 1st, 3rd, 5th, ... row receives the style instead of the correct row 2, 4, 6 etc. It would seem to me that the programmer that designed the underlying code used the index of a zero based index to determine if the row was even or odd. So let me pose this question: Do you think the first row should be considered even or odd?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
x % 2 == 0 in general. x % 2 == 1 when dealing with humans. That's my general strategy. I think I have all bases covered!
-- Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit
-
"Zero can't really be classed as either odd or even" This, in fact, is incorrect. Zero is even by all the properties of evenness.
Codemonkeys don't do it at all. Too busy coding.
I think I must have been having a mid afternoon brainfart. Russ
-
That's a great article, thank you!
-
Zero based indexes seem to be kicking programmer's A**es even today. I am recently using a software package that allows row styles to be applied for even and odd rows. If you apply an even style the 1st, 3rd, 5th, ... row receives the style instead of the correct row 2, 4, 6 etc. It would seem to me that the programmer that designed the underlying code used the index of a zero based index to determine if the row was even or odd. So let me pose this question: Do you think the first row should be considered even or odd?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
Hmm Since 0 is not odd nor even from a math point of view, why not solve this problem by assuming a 0-th row can't exist? In fact row 0 is a bit strange if you think about it. So row 1 has the data of your datasource with index 0, and that's no problem in any algorithm. You just can solve it by adding 1 on your data which is indexed 0. Just make a note in the code comments. :laugh:
-
Henry Minute wrote:
eleventyfour
I'd love to know how to render that in digits! :-D
If the post was helpful, please vote! Current activities: Book: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov Project: Hospital Automation, final stage Learning: Image analysis, LINQ Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
110100
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
-
No, no, no. I was not saying you were like a guinea pig, only that I was using you like one. I was trying to reproduce a problem that I was having in the programming fora, where after replying to a post, I could no longer select other messages. Needless to say, I could not reproduce it. So you were even useless as a guinea pig! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
<blockquote class="FQ"><div class="FQA">Henry Minute wrote:</div>So you were even useless as a guinea pig!</blockquote> I guess that makes up for calling him fat...
-
Henry Minute wrote:
eleventyfour
I'd love to know how to render that in digits! :-D
If the post was helpful, please vote! Current activities: Book: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov Project: Hospital Automation, final stage Learning: Image analysis, LINQ Now and forever, defiant to the end. What is Multiple Sclerosis[^]?
Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
Henry Minute wrote: eleventyfour I'd love to know how to render that in digits!
Well... Let's see... if seventy is 70 then eleventy would be 110. If we count in Hexadecimal, "eleventy" would be 6E, so eleventyfour would be 72. And of course we have to use something with a higher base than ten, so I think hexadecimal would be the proper choice given that it is so widely used already, but I would not cry foul if you wanted to use a system with a base of eleven... or eleventy I guess. :-D
-
SK Genius wrote:
But you can have negative zero as well!
Fine then, it's the first negative even number as well.
-
Mustafa Ismail Mustafa wrote:
Henry Minute wrote: eleventyfour I'd love to know how to render that in digits!
Well... Let's see... if seventy is 70 then eleventy would be 110. If we count in Hexadecimal, "eleventy" would be 6E, so eleventyfour would be 72. And of course we have to use something with a higher base than ten, so I think hexadecimal would be the proper choice given that it is so widely used already, but I would not cry foul if you wanted to use a system with a base of eleven... or eleventy I guess. :-D
I think you have misunderstood. eleventyfour is the representation of the number to base 25!
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
-
Zero based indexes seem to be kicking programmer's A**es even today. I am recently using a software package that allows row styles to be applied for even and odd rows. If you apply an even style the 1st, 3rd, 5th, ... row receives the style instead of the correct row 2, 4, 6 etc. It would seem to me that the programmer that designed the underlying code used the index of a zero based index to determine if the row was even or odd. So let me pose this question: Do you think the first row should be considered even or odd?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
Hello, Many times UIs are designed by developers. Usually this situation creates a design that follows the data instead of the User's needs/perception. I agree, it's irelevant whether the User understands the 1st row as row 0. To the User, it's the 1st row. 1 is always. Many times, great developers partner with UI designers to bridge the perception vs. behind-the-scenes infrastructure. It's always a good thing for developers to sit back and watch a complete stranger use their program... and take lots of notes. :)
-
Zero based indexes seem to be kicking programmer's A**es even today. I am recently using a software package that allows row styles to be applied for even and odd rows. If you apply an even style the 1st, 3rd, 5th, ... row receives the style instead of the correct row 2, 4, 6 etc. It would seem to me that the programmer that designed the underlying code used the index of a zero based index to determine if the row was even or odd. So let me pose this question: Do you think the first row should be considered even or odd?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
Hello, Many times UIs are designed by developers. Usually this situation creates a design that follows the data instead of the User's needs/perception. I agree, it's irrelevant whether the User understands the 1st row as row 0. To the User, it's the 1st row. 1 is always odd. Many times, great developers partner with UI designers to bridge the perception vs. behind-the-scenes infrastructure. It's always a good thing for developers to sit back and watch a complete stranger use their program... and take lots of notes. :)
-
I think you have misunderstood. eleventyfour is the representation of the number to base 25!
Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Well in that case, if eleventyfour would have to be A4 as A would be the eleventh digit and four would be the fourth. Or do I need to convert the base ten number 114 to base 25, which would be 4D? Don't worry, I am not offended that I've misunderstood for it is through misunderstanding that we learn how not to understand and thus how to understand. (Ok, that's slightly akin to a quote from the invention of the light bulb about learning lots of ways not to make a light bulb, but it fits.)
-
That's a great article, thank you!
-
Zero based indexes seem to be kicking programmer's A**es even today. I am recently using a software package that allows row styles to be applied for even and odd rows. If you apply an even style the 1st, 3rd, 5th, ... row receives the style instead of the correct row 2, 4, 6 etc. It would seem to me that the programmer that designed the underlying code used the index of a zero based index to determine if the row was even or odd. So let me pose this question: Do you think the first row should be considered even or odd?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
it should be even ( even numbers are n = 2k ; odd numbers are n = 2k+1 ; k is a relative integer) so if you can write 0 as 2k+1 ten consider it odd :)
-
Users don't think in terms of zero-th row. It's only programmers who think that there is a row number zero. Usually what I consider row number 0 becomes row 1 for the user. I think that's what Ennis's point was.
Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
Users don't think in terms of zero-th row
I have only begun reading "GUI Bloopers 2.0", but it's clear that 'Interfaces must be in the end-user's mental model' is a major obsession with the author. Personally I would not take it quite so far, if there are certain technical terms which are worth their weight, better to teach the terms than talk around them. Of course I agree, if the GUI labels the top row as 1, it must be odd. This could be an argument for relabeling the top-row as zero at the end-user-interface, end-users ought to be able to cope with that.
pg--az
-
Zero based indexes seem to be kicking programmer's A**es even today. I am recently using a software package that allows row styles to be applied for even and odd rows. If you apply an even style the 1st, 3rd, 5th, ... row receives the style instead of the correct row 2, 4, 6 etc. It would seem to me that the programmer that designed the underlying code used the index of a zero based index to determine if the row was even or odd. So let me pose this question: Do you think the first row should be considered even or odd?
Need custom software developed? I do C# development and consulting all over the United States. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
Most likely they are using modulo (even = rowIndex % 2 == 0). Does it really matter? IMO: no. E.g. 0 % 2 == 0 (even) 1 % 2 == 0 (odd) 2 % 2 == 0 (even) ... for (int i = 1; i < size; i++) { if (i % 2 == 0) { final HTMLTable.RowFormatter formatter = gridex.getRowFormatter(); formatter.addStyleName(i, "kw-sortable-dark"); } }